EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

COPPER HARBOR — Authorities are on the lookout for a beaver that bit a Laurium woman earlier this week. Keweenaw County Sheriff Elroy Antilla said the woman was headed to Copper Harbor and stopped her car. When she got out, the beaver emerged from under the vehicle and bit her in the ankle. The woman fell down and the beaver bit her again. The woman was treated at Portage View Hospital.

60 years ago

SAULT STE. MARIE — Passage of some 60 Great Lakes vessels was slowed Thursday when heavy ice floes off Lake Superior and fog bore down on the Soo Locks. Two ships had to back out of the canal after attempting passage. The new sharp-bowed 730-foot Paul H. Carnahan literally acted as a wedge when it attempted to negotiate the ice-clogged locks. The Carnahan is 75 feet wide and the lock is only 80 feet in width. Unlike conventional lake freighters, which push ice ahead of them, ice flowed around the Carnahan’s sides and wedged between her hull and the lock walls. C.A. Aune of the U.S. Corps of Engineers said the ice blowing into the west approaches to the canal was slowing but not barring passage of freighters with blunt bows. Only four vessels with so-called ocean type bows, like the Carnahan’s, operate on the lakes.